Blackberry Juta

Security agencies access

Research in Motion agreed to give access to private communications to the governments of United Arab Emirates[147] and Saudi Arabia[148] in 2010, and India in 2012.[149] The Saudi and UAE governments had threatened to ban certain services because their law enforcement agencies could not decrypt messages between people of interest.[150]

It was revealed as a part of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures that the American and British intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) respectively, have access to the user data on BlackBerry devices. The agencies are able to read almost all smartphone information, including SMS, location, e-mails, and notes through BlackBerry Internet Service, which operates outside corporate networks, and which, in contrast to the data passing through internal BlackBerry services (BES), only compresses but does not encrypt data.[151]

Documents stated that the NSA was able to access the BlackBerry e-mail system and that they could "see and read SMS traffic".[151] There was a brief period in 2009 when the NSA was unable to access BlackBerry devices, after BlackBerry changed the way they compress their data. Access to the devices was re-established by GCHQ.[151] GCHQ has a tool named SCRAPHEAP CHALLENGE, with the capability of "Perfect spoofing of emails from Blackberry targets".[152][153]

In response to the revelations BlackBerry officials stated that "It is not for us to comment on media reports regarding alleged government surveillance of telecommunications traffic" and added that a "back door pipeline" to their platform had not been established and did not exist.[151]

Similar access by the intelligence agencies to many other mobile devices exists, using similar techniques to hack into them.[151]

The BlackBerry software includes support for the Dual EC DRBG CSPRNG algorithm which, due to being probably backdoored by the NSA, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology "strongly recommends" no longer be used. BlackBerry Ltd. has however not issued an advisory to its customers, because they do not consider the probable backdoor a vulnerability. BlackBerry Ltd. also owns US patent 2007189527, which covers the technical design of the backdoor.[154]

Initially the BlackBerry was mostly popular by corporate and business users. By the late 2000s however, a growing number of other consumers were using it.[120]

The (formerly) advanced encryption capabilities of the BlackBerry Smartphone made it eligible for use by government agencies and state forces. On January 4, 2022, BlackBerry announced that older phones running BlackBerry 10, 7.1 OS and earlier will no longer work.[155]

Former United States president Barack Obama became known for his dependence on a BlackBerry device for communication during his 2008 Presidential campaign. Despite the security issues, he insisted on using it even after inauguration.[156] This was seen by some as akin to a "celebrity endorsement", which marketing experts have estimated to be worth between $25 million and $50 million.[157] His usage of BlackBerry continued until around the end of his presidency.[158]

The Hillary Clinton email controversy is associated with Hillary Clinton continuing to use her black colored BlackBerry after assuming the office of Secretary of State.[159]

Government access to encrypted communication

After a four-year stand-off with the Indian government over access to RIM's secure networks, the company demonstrated the ability to intercept consumer email and messaging traffic between BlackBerry handsets, and make these encrypted communications available to Indian security agencies. This agreement does not include its enterprise services.[222]

Through the Canadian Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, Blackberry has given its master encryption keys to law enforcement, allowing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to view communications and other encrypted information.[223] Then-CEO John Chen defended the company's sharing of data, saying "(we) have long been clear in our stance that tech companies as good corporate citizens should comply with reasonable lawful access requests."[224]

Electronics industry in Canada

43°31′02″N 80°30′57″W / 43.5171578°N 80.5158791°W / 43.5171578; -80.5158791

Line of wireless handheld devices and services

BlackBerry was a maker of smartphones and other related mobile services and devices. The line was originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion, or RIM) from 1999 to 2016, after which it was licensed to various companies.[1]

Specializing in secure communications and mobile productivity, BlackBerry was once well known for the keyboards on most of its devices and software services that ran through its own servers.[2] At its peak in September 2011, there were 85 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide.[3][4] However, BlackBerry lost its dominant position in the market due to the success of the Android and iOS platforms; its numbers had fallen to 23 million in March 2016, a decline of almost three-quarters.

On September 28, 2016, BlackBerry Limited announced it would cease designing its own BlackBerry devices in favor of licensing to partners to design, manufacture, and market.[5] The original licensors were BB Merah Putih for the Indonesian market, Optiemus Infracom for the South Asian market, and BlackBerry Mobile (a trade name of TCL Technology) for all other markets.[6][7]

Historically, BlackBerry devices used a proprietary operating system—known as BlackBerry OS—developed by BlackBerry Limited. In 2013, BlackBerry introduced BlackBerry 10, a major revamp of the platform based on the QNX operating system. BlackBerry 10 was meant to replace the aging BlackBerry OS platform with a new system that was more in line with the user experiences of Android and iOS platforms. In 2015, BlackBerry began releasing Android-based smartphones, beginning with the BlackBerry Priv.

BlackBerry, a comedy-drama film about the rise and fall of BlackBerry, was released in 2023.

Research in Motion (RIM), founded in Waterloo, Ontario, first developed the Inter@ctive Pager 900, announced on September 18, 1996. The Inter@ctive Pager 900 was a clamshell-type device that allowed two-way paging.[8] After the success of the 900, the Inter@ctive Pager 800 was created for IBM, which bought US$10 million worth of them on February 4, 1998.[9] The next device to be released was the Inter@ctive Pager 950, on August 26, 1998. The first device to carry the BlackBerry name was the BlackBerry 850, an email pager, released January 19, 1999. Although identical in appearance to the 950, the 850 was the first device to integrate email and the name Inter@ctive Pager was no longer used to brand the device.

The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany.[10] BlackBerry was a solution devised by RIM for delivering e-mail over several different wireless networks.[11] The name BlackBerry was coined by the marketing company Lexicon Branding. The name was chosen out of about 40 potential names, because of the resemblance of the keyboard's buttons to that of the drupelets that compose the blackberry fruit, and the instant pronunciation which reflected the speed of this push email system.[12]

The original BlackBerry devices, the RIM 850 and 857, used the DataTAC network. In 2002, the more commonly known convergent BlackBerry 5810 smartphone was released, which supports push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, Internet faxing, Web browsing and other wireless information services.[13]

BlackBerry gained market share in the mobile industry by concentrating on email. BlackBerry began to offer email service on non-BlackBerry devices, such as the Palm Treo, through the proprietary BlackBerry Connect software.

The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display while newer models installed color displays. All newer models have been optimized for "thumbing", the use of only the thumbs to type on a keyboard. The Storm 1 and Storm 2 include a SureType keypad for typing. Originally, system navigation was achieved with the use of a scroll wheel mounted on the right side of device models prior to the 8700. The trackwheel was replaced by the trackball with the introduction of the Pearl series, which allowed four-way scrolling. The trackball was replaced by the optical trackpad with the introduction of the Curve 8500 series. Models made to use iDEN networks, such as Nextel, SouthernLINC, NII Holdings, and Mike also incorporate a push-to-talk (PTT) feature, similar to a two-way radio.

On January 30, 2013, BlackBerry announced the release of the Z10 and Q10 smartphones. Both models consisted of touch screens: the Z10 features an all-touch design[14] and the Q10 combines a QWERTY keyboard with touchscreen features.[15]

On March 5, 2013, BlackBerry announced the signature of a large contract to secure German government Data and Voice communications. Angela Merkel signed the contract publicly and appeared at Cebit along with BlackBerry Europe Managing Director, Herve Liboureau.

During the second financial quarter of 2013, BlackBerry sold 6.8 million handsets, but was eclipsed by the sales of competitor Nokia's Lumia model for the first time.[16]

On August 12, 2013, BlackBerry announced the intention to sell the company due to their increasingly unfavorable financial position and competition in the mobile industry.[17] Largely due to lower than expected sales on the Z10, BlackBerry announced on September 20, 2013, that 4,500 full- and part-time positions (an estimated 40% of its operating staff) have been terminated and its product line has been reduced from six to four models.[18] On September 23, 2013, Fairfax Financial, which owns a 10% equity stake in BlackBerry, made an offer to acquire BlackBerry for $4.7 billion (at $9.00 per share). Following the announcement, BlackBerry announced an acceptance of the offer provisionally but it would continue to seek other offers until November 4, 2013.[19]

On November 4, 2013, BlackBerry replaced Thorsten Heins with new interim CEO John S. Chen, the former CEO of Sybase.[20] On November 8, the BlackBerry board rejected proposals from several technology companies for various BlackBerry assets on grounds that a break-up did not serve the interest of all stakeholders, which include employees, customers and suppliers in addition to shareholders, said the sources, who did not want to be identified as the discussions were confidential.[21] On November 13, 2013, Chen released an open message: "We are committed to reclaiming our success."[22]

On December 17, 2013, BlackBerry announced a contract for more than 10'000 BlackBerry Z10 for Peugeot SA.

On February 26, 2014, during Mobile World Congress, Airbus signed a contract with BlackBerry Europe Managing Director, Herve Liboureau, for the BlackBerry 10 entire Mobility Management suite.

In early July 2014, the TechCrunch online publication published an article titled "BlackBerry Is One Of The Hottest Stocks Of 2014, Seriously", following a 50 percent rise in the company's stock, an increase that was greater than peer companies such as Apple and Google; however, an analysis of BlackBerry's financial results showed that neither revenue or profit margin were improved, but, instead, costs were markedly reduced. During the same period, BlackBerry also introduced the new Passport handset—consisting of a 4.5-inch (11 cm) square screen with "Full HD-class" (1,440 x 1,440) resolution and marketed to professional fields such as healthcare and architecture—promoted its Messenger app and released minor updates for the BB10 mobile operating system.[23][24]

On December 17, 2014, the BlackBerry Classic was introduced; it is meant to be more in line with the former Bold series, incorporating navigation buttons similar to the previous BlackBerry OS devices.[25] When it was discontinued in June 2016, it was the last BlackBerry with a keyboard that dominates the front of the phone in the classic style.[26]

In September 2015, BlackBerry officially unveiled the BlackBerry Priv, a slider, with a German made camera lens with 18 megapixels, phablet that utilizes the Android operating system with additional security and productivity-oriented features inspired by the BlackBerry operating systems.[27][28][29][30] However, BlackBerry COO Marty Beard told Bloomberg that "The company's never said that we would not build another BB10 device."[31]

On July 26, 2016, the company hinted that another model with a physical keyboard was "coming shortly". The same day, BlackBerry unveiled a mid-range Android model with only an on-screen keyboard, the BlackBerry DTEK50, powered by the then latest version of Android Marshmallow (version 6.0). (The Priv could be upgraded to the same version of the Android operating system as well.) This device featured a 5.2-inch full high-definition (or in other words, a FHD), display. BlackBerry chief security officer David Kleidermacher stressed data security during the launch, indicating that this model included built-in malware protection and encryption of all user information.[32][33] Industry observers pointed out that the DTEK50 is a re-branded version of the Alcatel Idol 4 with additional security-oriented software customizations, manufactured and designed by TCL.[34][32][33]

In September 2016, BlackBerry Limited agreed to a licensing partnership with an Indonesian company to set up a new joint venture company called BB Merah Putih to "source, distribute, and market BlackBerry handsets in Indonesia".[35]

On October 25, 2016, BlackBerry released the BlackBerry DTEK60, the second device in the DTEK series, manufactured and designed by TCL. The device features a 5.5-inch Quad-HD touch screen display running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor with support for Quick Charge 3.0, USB Type-C, and a fingerprint sensor.[36]

In October 2016, it was announced that BlackBerry will be working with the Ford Motor Company of Canada to develop software for the car manufacturer's connected vehicles.[37]

In February 2017, a $20m class action lawsuit against BlackBerry was announced by the former employees of the company.[38]

In March 2017, BB Merah Putih announced the BlackBerry Aurora, an Indonesian-made and sold device, running an operating system based on Android 7.0 out of the box.

In March 2018, it was announced that BlackBerry would be working with Jaguar Land Rover to develop software for the car manufacturer's vehicles.[39] In June 2018, BlackBerry in partnership with TCL Mobile and Optiemus Infracom launched the KEY2 at a global launch in New York.[40] This is the third device to sport a keyboard while running Google's Android OS.

In 2017, BlackBerry Mobile released the BlackBerry KeyOne—which was known for having a physical keyboard below its 4.5 inch touchscreen and a long battery life—and was the last device to be designed internally by BlackBerry.[41] Also in 2017, BlackBerry Mobile, under their partner license agreements, released the BlackBerry Aurora, BlackBerry KeyOne L/E BLACK, and the BlackBerry Motion.

In June 2018, the BlackBerry Key2 was launched in international markets, and in India by licensee Optiemus Infracom.[42] The Key2 sports a dual camera setup and incorporates features such as portrait mode and optical zoom. In August 2018, after the launch of the BlackBerry Key2, Optiemus Infracom announced the launch of the BlackBerry Evolve and Evolve X[43] smartphones for the Indian market sold exclusively on Amazon India. The smartphones have been conceptualized, designed and manufactured in India.

As of 2019, BB Merah Putih's website has been repurposed,[44][45] with BlackBerry Limited stating that only technical support will be offered for the Indonesian devices built by the company.[46] Additionally, the operational status of Optiemus is unknown as of September 2020, as there have not been any updates posted regarding BlackBerry products in India since 2018.

In October 2023, it was announced that Blackberry Chief Operating Officer, John Chen would be leaving the company after ten years.[47] Richard Lynch will take over as interim CEO and chair of the board.[48][49]

–2001: early years and growth

Research In Motion Limited was founded in March 1984 by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin.[4] At the time, Lazaridis was an engineering student at the University of Waterloo while Fregin was an engineering student at the University of Windsor.[5] In 1988, RIM became the first wireless data technology developer in North America and the first company outside the Nordic countries to develop connectivity products for Mobitex wireless packet-switched data communications networks. Mobitex's wireless data transport also became RIM's first wireless data service that powered the Blackberry and Palm devices until it was phased out.[6] In 1990, RIM introduced the DigiSync Film KeyKode Reader.[7] In 1991, it introduced the first Mobitex protocol converter. In 1992, it introduced the first Mobitex point-of-sale solution, a protocol converter box that interfaced with existing point-of-sale terminal equipment to enable wireless communication. In 1993, it introduced the RIMGate, the first general-purpose Mobitex X.25 gateway.[citation needed] In the same year, it launched Ericsson Mobidem AT and Intel wireless modems containing RIM modem firmware. In 1994, it introduced the first Mobitex mobile point-of-sale terminal. In the same year, it received the Emmy Award for Technical Innovation and the KPMG High Technology Award. In 1995, it introduced Freedom, the first Type II PCMCIA radio modem for Mobitex. [citation needed]

In 1995, RIM was financed by Canadian institutional and venture capital investors through a private placement in the privately held company. Working Ventures Canadian Fund Inc. led the first venture round[8] with a C$5,000,000 investment with the proceeds being used to complete the development of RIM's two-way paging system hardware and software. A total of C$30,000,000 in pre-IPO financing was raised by the company prior to its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in January 1998 under the symbol RIM.[9]

In 1996, RIM introduced the Interactive Pager, the first two-way messaging pager, and the RIM 900 OEM radio modem. The company developed the pager prototype with the support of Intel Corporation.[10] The company worked with RAM Mobile Data and Ericsson to turn the Ericsson-developed Mobitex wireless data network into a two-way paging and wireless e-mail network. Pivotal in this development was the release of the Inter@ctive Pager 950. In August 1997, a prototype was presented to BellSouth executives, who were impressed with the device and agreed to a $70-million deal that involved the supply of 100,000 devices.[11] The pager started shipping in August 1998. About the size of a bar of soap, this device competed against the Skytel two-way paging network developed by Motorola. [citation needed]

In 1999, RIM introduced the BlackBerry 850 pager. This was also the first device to use the Blackberry OS.[12] Named after its keyboard's similarity to the druplets of the blackberry fruit,[13] the device could receive push email from a Microsoft Exchange Server using its complementary server software, BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). Its introduction set the stage for the company's future enterprise-oriented products, such as the BlackBerry 957 in April 2000, the first BlackBerry smartphone. The BlackBerry OS platform and BES continued to increase in functionality, while the incorporation of encryption and S/MIME support helped BlackBerry devices gain increased usage by governments and businesses.[14][15] During fiscal 1999-2001, RIM's assets grew eight-fold due to massive capacity expansion. [citation needed]

BlackBerry Dynamics (Formerly Good Dynamics)

A Mobile Application Management platform that manages and secures app data through application virtualization. The BlackBerry Dynamics suite of apps includes email, calendar, contacts, tasks, instant messaging, browsing, and document sharing. The BlackBerry Dynamics SDK allows developers to utilize the platform's security, and add functionality from BlackBerry's other solutions into their applications.[186]

Competition and financial results

The BlackBerry grew swiftly in popularity during the early 2000s, and by 2005 had become highly popular and influential in North America.[117] It then gained the nickname "Crackberry" due to its seemingly addictive nature.[118]

As of 2006, some of the BlackBerry's main competitors included offerings from Motorola (namely Motorola Q), Palm, Inc., the iPAQ and other Pocket PCs, and Nokia (namely Nokia E61).[119]

As of 2009, RIM held 56 percent of the American smartphone market. While the iPhone from Apple Inc. quickly became popular after its launch, RIM remained market leaders and was growing too, with sales tripling between 2007 and 2009. In Fortune's list of the Fastest Growing Companies of 2009, RIM ranked first, while the BlackBerry Curve became the best-selling smartphone in the U.S. in 2009.[120]

Despite market share loss, on a global basis, the number of active BlackBerry subscribers increased substantially through the years. For example, for the fiscal period during which the Apple iPhone was first released, RIM reported that they had a subscriber base of 10.5 million BlackBerry subscribers.[121] At the end of 2008, when Android first hit the market, RIM reported that the number of BlackBerry subscribers had increased to 21 million. After the release of the Apple iPhone 5 in September 2012, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins announced that the current global subscribers was up to 80 million, which sparked a 7% jump in shares price.[122]

In the year 2010, RIM and Apple continued to dominate the U.S. smartphone market, although the BlackBerry Curve had lost its spot as the single highest selling product to the iPhone 3GS.[123]

In the early 2010s, BlackBerry struggled to compete against both the iPhone and the Android platform - after device sales peaking in 2011, its share plunged in the years after, leading to speculation that it would be unable to survive as an independent going concern.[124] However, it managed to maintain significant positions in some markets.[125] BlackBerry's global user base (meaning active accounts) declined dramatically since its peak of 80 million in June 2012, dropping to 46 million users in September 2014.[126] Its market share globally had also declined to less than 1 percent.[127][128]

During the report of its third quarter 2015 results on December 18, 2015, the company said that approximately 700,000 handsets had been sold, down from 1.9 million in the same quarter in 2014, and down from 800,000 in Q2 of 2015. The average sale price per unit was up from $240 to $315, however. This should continue to increase with sales of the new Android Priv device which was selling at a premium price ($800 in Canada, for example). In Q3 of 2015, BlackBerry had a net loss of $89 million U.S. or 17 cents per share, but only a $15 million net loss, or three cents per share, when excluding restructuring charges and other one-time items.[129]

Revenue was up slightly from a year earlier, at $557 million U.S. vs. $548 million, primarily because of software sales. Chief executive officer John Chen said that he expects the company's software business to grow at (14 percent) or above the market.[129] At the time, the company was not ready to provide sales figures for the Android-based Priv handset which had been released only weeks earlier, and in only four countries at that time, but Chen offered this comment to analysts: "Depending on how Priv does ... there is a chance we could achieve or get closer to break-even operating profitability for our overall device business in the (fourth) quarter".[92]

Due to a continuous reduction in BlackBerry users, in February 2016 the BlackBerry headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, slashed 35 percent of its workforce.[130] By early 2016, BlackBerry market share dropped to 0.2%.[131] In Q4 2016, reports indicate BlackBerry sold only 207,900 units—equivalent to a 0.0% market share.[132]

In 2011, BlackBerry shipped 43% of all smartphones to Indonesia. By April 2014 this had fallen to 3%. The decline in the Indonesian market share mirrors a global trend for the company (0.6% of North America).[133] The retail price of 2,199,000 Indonesian Rupiah ($189) failed to give BlackBerry the boost it needed in Indonesia. The company launched the device with a discounted offer to the first 1000 purchasers, which resulted in a stampede in the capital in which several people were injured.[133] BlackBerry lost market share in Indonesia despite the launch of the Z3 on May 13, 2014.[134] The new device was given a worldwide launch in the city of Jakarta and came on the back of the news that Research in Motion (RIM) was to cut hardware production costs by outsourcing this to Taiwan-based Foxconn Group.[135]

BlackBerry 2FA (Formerly Strong Authentication)

A two-factor, certificate-based VPN authentication solution that allows users to authenticate without requiring PINs or passwords. [citation needed]

An IP-based enterprise instant messaging platform that provides end-to-end encryption for voice, video, and text-based communication. On February 7, 2017, Blackberry released the BBM Enterprise SDK, a "Communications Platform as a Service" kit that allows developers to incorporate BBM Enterprise's messaging capabilities into their own applications. Said capabilities include secure messaging, voice, video, file sharing, and presence information.[187]

An emergency communication system, AtHoc provides two-way messaging and notifications across a range of devices and platforms. On May 17, 2017, BlackBerry released AtHoc Account to help businesses more easily keep track of their staff in an emergency.[188]

An anti-eavesdropping solution that provides voice, data, and SMS encryption. [citation needed]

A real-time embedded operating system, QNX drives multiple software systems in modern auto vehicles, and forms the basis of solutions like BlackBerry Radar, an IoT-based asset tracking system for the transportation industry.[189]

BlackBerry IVY is an edge-to-cloud vehicle data platform.[190]

Since the turn of the century, RIM has been embroiled in a series of suits relating to alleged patent infringement.[191]

In 2001, Research In Motion sued competitor Glenayre Electronics Inc. for patent infringement, partly in response to an earlier infringement suit filed by Glenayre against RIM.[7] RIM sought an injunction to prevent Glenayre from infringing on RIM's "Single Mailbox Integration" patent.[192] The suit was ultimately settled in favour of RIM. [citation needed]

In June 2002, Research In Motion filed suit against 2000 start-up and competitor Good Technology.[193] RIM filed additional complaints throughout the year.[194] In March 2004, Good agreed to a licensing deal, thereby settling the outstanding litigation.[195]

On September 16, 2002, Research In Motion was awarded a patent pertaining to keyboard design on hand-held e-mail devices. Upon receiving the patent, it proceeded to sue Handspring over its Treo device.[194][196] Handspring eventually agreed to license RIM's patent and avoid further litigation in November of the same year.[197]

During the appeals, RIM discovered new prior art that raised a "substantial new question of patentability" and filed for a reexamination of the NTP patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. That reexamination was conducted separately to the court cases for infringement. In February 2006, the USPTO rejected all of NTP's claims in three disputed patents. NTP appealed the decision, and the reexamination process was still ongoing as of July 2006 (See NTP, Inc. for details).

On March 3, 2006, RIM announced that it had settled its BlackBerry patent dispute with NTP.[198] Under the terms of the settlement, RIM agreed to pay NTP US$612.5 million[198] in a "full and final settlement of all claims". In a statement, RIM said that "all terms of the agreement have been finalized and the litigation against RIM has been dismissed by a court order this afternoon. The agreement eliminates the need for any further court proceedings or decisions relating to damages or injunctive relief."[199]

On July 17, 2003, while still embroiled in litigation with NTP and Good Technology, RIM filed suit against Xerox in the U.S. District of Hartford, Connecticut. The suit was filed in response to discussions about patents held by Xerox that might affect RIM's business and also asked that patents held by Xerox be invalidated.[200]

On May 1, 2006, RIM was sued by Visto for infringement of four patents.[201] Though the patents were widely considered invalid and in the same veins as the NTP patents – with a judgement going against Visto in the U.K.[202][203] – RIM settled the lawsuit in the United States on July 16, 2009, with RIM agreeing to pay Visto US$267.5 million plus other undisclosed terms.[204]

On January 22, 2010, Motorola requested that all BlackBerry smartphones be banned from being imported into the United States for infringing upon five of Motorola's patents. Their patents for "early-stage innovations", including UI, power management and WiFi, are in question.[205] RIM countersued later the same day, alleging anti-competitive behaviour and that Motorola had broken a 2003 licensing agreement by refusing to extend licensing terms beyond 2008.[206] The companies settled out of court on June 11, 2010.[207]

On December 5, 2011, Research In Motion obtained an order granting its motion to dismiss plaintiff Eatoni's claims that RIM violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act and equivalent portions of New York's Donnelly Act. Eatoni alleged that RIM's alleged infringement of plaintiff's '317 patent constituted an antitrust violation. Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc. v. Research In Motion Corp., No. 08-Civ. 10079 (WHP) (S.D.N.Y. Dec 5, 2011), Memorandum and Order, p. 1 (Pauley, J.).[208]

In July 2012, a U.S. federal court jury awarded damages (later overturned) of $147 million against Research In Motion. The jury decided that Research In Motion had violated patents of Mformation and calculated damages of $8 each on 18.4 million units for royalties on past sales of devices to nongovernment U.S. customers only, not including future royalty payments inside and outside the U.S.[209] On August 9, 2012, that verdict was overturned on appeal. RIM had argued that Mformation's patent claims were invalid because the processes were already being used when Mformation filed its patent application. Judge James Ware said Mformation failed to establish that RIM had infringed on the company's patent.[210]

On May 26, 2017, BlackBerry announced that it had reached an agreement with Qualcomm Incorporated resolving all amounts payable in connection with the interim arbitration decision announced on April 12, 2017. Following a joint stipulation by the parties, the arbitration panel has issued a final award providing for the payment by Qualcomm to BlackBerry of a total amount of U.S.$940,000,000 including interest and attorneys' fees, net of certain royalties due from BlackBerry for calendar 2016 and the first quarter of calendar 2017.[211]

On March 8, 2018, BlackBerry Limited sued Facebook Inc. in federal court in Los Angeles. According to BlackBerry Limited, Facebook has built swaths of its empire on the messaging technology which was originally developed by them during the time when the Facebook chief, Mark Zuckerberg, was still living in a Harvard University dorm room.[212] Blackberry Limited alleged that many features of the Facebook messaging service infringe on BlackBerry patents.[213] In January 2021, BlackBerry shares jumped 20% after settling its patent dispute with Facebook.[214]

In November 2011, Blackberry, then RIM, was ranked 15th out of 15 electronics manufacturers in Greenpeace's re-launched Guide to Greener Electronics.[215] In its 2012 report on progress relating to conflict minerals, the Enough Project rated RIM the sixth highest of 24 consumer electronics companies.[216] In 2014, RIM partnered with Solutions for Hope to expand the number of conflict-free mineral regions in the Congo.[217]

On October 10, 2011, RIM experienced one of the worst service outages in the company's history. Tens of millions of BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America were unable to receive or send emails and BBM messages through their phones.[218] The outage was caused as a result of a core switch failure, "A transition to a back-up switch did not function as tested, causing a large backlog of data, RIM said."[219] Service was restored on October 13, with RIM announcing a $100 package of free premium apps for users and enterprise support extensions.[220][221]

Use by government forces

An example is the West Yorkshire Police, which allowed the increase in the presence of police officers along the streets and a reduction in public spending, given that each officer could perform desk work directly via the mobile device,[160] as well as in several other areas and situations.[161] The US Federal Government was slow to move away from the BlackBerry platform, a State Department spokesperson saying in 2013 that BlackBerry devices were still the only mobile devices approved for U.S. missions abroad by the State Department.[162] The high encryption standard that made BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet unique, have since been implemented in other devices,[163] including most Apple devices released after the iPhone 4. The Bangalore City Police is one of the few police departments in India along with the Pune Police and Kochi Police to use BlackBerry devices.[164][165]

John Chen resigns from BlackBerry

On October 30, 2023 John S. Chen announced his resignation as CEO through an employee letter posted to the Blackberry Limited blog page stating he will cease his role on November 4, 2023.[99]

Until 2013, the number of active BlackBerry users increased over time. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year ended March 3, 2012, RIM shipped 11.1 million BlackBerry smartphones, down 21 percent from the previous quarter and it was the first decline in the quarter covering Christmas since 2006. For its fourth quarter, RIM announced a net loss of US$125 million (the last loss before this occurred in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2005).[100] RIM's loss of market share accelerated in 2011, due to the rapidly growing sales of Samsung and HTC Android handsets; RIM's annual market share in the U.S. dropped to just 3 percent, from 9 percent.[101]

In the quarter ended June 28, 2012, RIM announced that the number of BlackBerry subscribers had reached 78 million globally.[102] Furthermore, RIM reported its first quarter revenue for the 2013 fiscal year, showing that the company incurred a GAAP net loss of US$518 million for the quarter, and announced a plan to implement a US$1 billion cost-saving initiative. The company also announced the delay of the new BlackBerry 10 OS until the first quarter of 2013.[103]

After the release of the Apple iPhone 5 in September 2012, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins announced that the number of global users was up to 80 million, which sparked a 7% jump in shares.[104] On December 2, 2012, the company reported a decline in the global subscriber base of BlackBerry to 79 million, after peaking at an all-time high of 80 million the previous quarter.[34] Later that same month, media reports confirmed that BlackBerry lost US$1.049 billion during the second fiscal quarter of 2013. In the wake of the loss, Heins stated: "We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a series of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure."[105]

Between 2010 and 2013, the stock price of the company dropped by 87 percent due to the widespread popularity of the iPhone. Goldman Sachs estimated that, in June 2014, BlackBerry accounted for 1 percent share of smartphone sales, compared to a peak of around 20 percent in 2009.[31]

With the release of its financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2015 in June 2014, Chen presented a more stable company that had incurred a lower amount of loss than previous quarters. The New York Times described "a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss." Following the news release, Chen stated that BlackBerry was comfortable with its position, and it is understood that his plan for the company mainly involves businesses and governments, rather than consumers.[106]

–present: software transition

In the first quarter of the 2015 fiscal year, Chen stated: "This is, of course, the very beginning of our task and we hope that we will be able to report better results going forward… We feel pretty good about where we are." Quartz reported that stock was up by 30 percent, compared to the same period in the previous year.[31]

In September 2015, Chen unveiled the BlackBerry Priv, a keyboard-slider smartphone utilizing the Android operating system with BlackBerry-developed software enhancements, including a secure bootloader, full-disk encryption, integrity protection, and the BlackBerry HUB.[76]

In 2020, BlackBerry signed a new licensing agreement for smartphones with the US-based startup company, OnwardMobility.[77] The company never released a device before shutting down in 2022.[78]

As of June 2021, Cybersecurity ($107 million) and IoT ($43 million) revenue accounted for a combined 86% of Q1 2022 earnings ($174 million). Chen reiterated: "Now, we are pivoting the organization more heavily toward the market by creating two business units, Cybersecurity and IoT… we will provide revenue and gross margin by business unit as well as other selected metrics."[79]

On January 4, 2022, BlackBerry decommissioned the infrastructure and operating system used by their non-Android phones.[80]

In October 2023, the company announced that it would spin off its IoT business unit and hold an initial public offering for it in the next year.[81][82]

During this time, BlackBerry also expanded its software and services offerings with several acquisitions. These included file security firm WatchDox,[83] crisis communications leader AtHoc,[84] and rival EMM vendor Good Technology.[85] The products offered by these firms were gradually re-branded and integrated into BlackBerry's own portfolio. BlackBerry also announced the release of the Good Secure EMM Suites, consolidating WatchDox and Good Technology's products into several tiered offerings alongside its existing software.[86]

BlackBerry announced the DTeK50, a mid-range Android smartphone, on July 26, 2016.[87] Unlike the Priv, the DTek50 was a re-branded version of an existing smartphone, the Alcatel Idol 4 as manufactured by TCL Corporation, one of the company's hardware partners.[88] It was to be the second-last phone ever developed in-house at BlackBerry, followed by the DTek60 in October 2016 – on September 28, 2016, BlackBerry announced that it would cease in-house hardware development to focus on software, delegating development, design, and manufacturing of its devices to third-party partners.[89]

The first of these partners was BB Merah Putih, a joint venture in Indonesia. Chen stated that the company was "no longer just about the smartphone, but the smart in the phone".[90][91] On December 15, 2016, BlackBerry announced that it had reached a long-term deal with TCL to continue producing BlackBerry-branded smartphones for sale outside of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.[92] This partnership was followed by an agreement with Optiemus Infracom on February 6, 2017, to produce devices throughout India and neighbouring markets including Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh.[93]

Since the partnerships were announced, TCL released the BlackBerry KeyOne[94] and BB Merah Putih released the BlackBerry Aurora.[95]

In February 2016, BlackBerry acquired UK-based cybersecurity firm Encription,[96] with the intention of branching out into the security consulting business.

On December 8, 2016, BlackBerry announced the release of BlackBerry Secure. Billed as a "comprehensive mobile security platform for the Enterprise of Things", BlackBerry Secure deepened the integration between BlackBerry's acquisitions and its core portfolio. According to Forbes, it brings all of BlackBerry's products "under a single umbrella".[97]

Also in February 2017, analyst firm 451 Research released a report on BlackBerry's improved financial position and product focus.[98] The report identified BlackBerry's position in the Internet of Things and its device licensing strategy as strengths.

With BlackBerry’s help, the organization is now in the process of moving its commands to on-premises installations of BlackBerry UEM. Servers and infrastructure are being centralized, while commands are still being left in control of endpoint management. In addition to UEM, the organization is using Microsoft® Office 365®, BlackBerry Work, and BlackBerry Dynamics.

This new approach has resulted in several significant gains:

A Unified Mobile Strategy: First and foremost, the organization is working to achieve its core goal: consolidation. Rather than having to bolt on separate apps from separate commands, it can now manage everything centrally. This allows for better security, and also helps the different commands stay up to date with the latest mobility trends far more effectively than would otherwise be possible.

“The organization’s goal when they approached us was for every command to be centrally-managed,” says the Sales Director. “They wanted to consolidate their architecture and allow their end users to focus on using their applications rather than maintaining them. Through BlackBerry, they’re doing exactly that.”

Improved Efficiency, Better Support for Personnel: In addition to migrating its current applications to BlackBerry Dynamics, the organization is developing several new applications through BlackBerry Dynamics SDK. With BlackBerry’s help, it has already deployed a mission support application. Instead of having to spend hours doing paperwork before and after a mission, personnel can simply login to the app through their mobile devices.

The organization is also working on a human resources application that allows personnel to access functions such as benefits, vacation time, and more. It has also deployed SmartOffice through Dynamics.

“Enterprise email folks were saying that they needed to do more than email,” the Sales Director explains. “Eventually, someone’s going to want to install a fence monitoring application on an iPad, or someone is going to want to put ,their email on their smartphone. They can’t do that without an enterprise-supported architecture.”

Easier BYOD: By using BlackBerry Work and containerizing its apps with Dynamics, the organization can easily support the use of personal devices. Military data is kept separate from personal information, and UEM allows IT to easily manage and keep track of everything.

“The way the organization looks at it is that there’s a clear divide between personal and professional data,” says the Director. “They let their personnel use personal apps on their devices within acceptable use, and BlackBerry allows them to keep those apps separate from the stuff they need to protect.”

Security, Control, Compliance: Finally, through BlackBerry’s security functionality, the organization is able to keep sensitive data both protected and classified. IT can keep sensitive files and data stored within its container, and sensitive mission details are protected from the eyes of everyone save those who need access.

More importantly, because BlackBerry’s solutions are so easy to use from an end-user standpoint, the organization need not worry as much about accidental data leaks.

“In any organization, insider threat or negligence is the biggest security risk,” says the Sales Director. “And it usually happens because people feel security interferes with their job. If we make it easy to follow security rules, people won’t feel the need to violate them.“